State Eviction Moratorium Pause Ends

The COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020, signed by the governor on Dec. 28, 2020, suspended eviction and foreclosure proceedings for 60 days to give renters and homeowners the opportunity to submit a hardship declaration. The suspension ended Feb. 26.

Pending eviction cases can start moving forward again in court, and new cases can be filed unless a tenant submits a hardship declaration form to either the court or the owner. Tenants can fill out this form at any point before May 1, up until a marshal shows up at the tenant’s door to pause an eviction case.

In other words, the moratorium is extended until May 1 only for tenants who fill out the hardship declaration form. From the end of December until Feb. 26 almost all tenants were protected from eviction because cases were paused. But since Feb. 26, the moratorium protections cover only those tenants who submit the hardship declaration.

According to the Office of Court Administration, 6,817 people in New York State have filed hardship declarations with the courts. From that, more than 5,000 were for pending eviction cases, and about 1,000 were to prevent cases that haven’t been filed yet. Those numbers are just for the tenants who sent the hardship declaration to the courts, and don’t reflect the number of people who sent the form directly to owners to prevent a future case.